Always a celebratory event, this year’s New York Thoroughbred Breeders awards ceremony was bittersweet, as the evening’s big winner was Maple Leaf Mel. 

Steps from winning the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga Race Course last August, the daughter of Cross Traffic suffered a catastrophic broken leg and was euthanized on the track. 

Despite her abbreviated career, she was a decisive winner in three categories at the May 13 event: champion three-year-old filly, champion female sprinter, and Horse of the Year. Her dam, City Gift, was named Broodmare of the Year. Maple Leaf Mel was bred by Joe Fafone, who was essentially given her Florida-bred dam, who had already foaled two six-figure earners bred by Barry Schwartz’s Stonewall Farm.  

“I think we got her from Eddie Plesa,” said Peter Moore, Schwartz’s farm manager. “Our runner Rodman was standing in Florida at Woodford Thoroughbreds, and we wanted mares to breed to him.” 

Schwartz also bred her to El Corredor, then standing at Questroyal North in New York, resulting in the stakes-placed Eddie’s Gift (the name a nod to Plesa), who earned $168,000. Another half-brother, this one by Schwartz’s multiple graded stakes winning The Lumber Guy and named Dr. Lloyd, earned $131,000, mostly at Finger Lakes for trainer Mike Ferraro, who then sold him to Joe Fafone. 

 “They really didn’t charge me a lot for her, and I bred her and happened to get lucky,” said Fafone. He sold City Gift less than a year after she foaled Maple Leaf Mel, getting $4,000 for her in foal to Brody’s Cause at the 2021 Keeneland January sale of horses of all ages, before Maple Leaf Mel became Maple Leaf Mel.

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